Maddocks: After redistricting, Benghazi shown to be a lot closer to Crimea

Friday

Mar 14, 2014 at 6:31 PMMar 14, 2014 at 6:31 PM

By Philip Maddocks

As declarations of U.S. weakness and theories about this perceived national decline resounded throughout the Capitol Building, senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain offered the most compelling argument yet for tying the turmoil in Ukraine to the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the envoy to that country and three other Americans.Holding up a hastily drawn redistricting map of the world that now showed Benghazi as a close neighbor of Simferopol, the regional capital in Crimea, Mr. Graham and Mr. McCain forcefully made their case that the White House has not been forthcoming about what it knew and when it knew it about Benghazi, which in turn has led directly to the crisis in Eastern Europe."I have argued for a long time that everything bad that has happened to this country can be traced to Benghazi and now we have the proof," said Mr. Graham of South Carolina, as he pointed triumphantly to the tattered redistricting map that also appeared to have on its backside a portion of a speech left over from Mr. McCain’s failed 2008 presidential bid.As confused reporters studied the hand-drawn map, grappling with the idea that Benghazi now bordered the Black Sea and was some 1,163 miles northeast of its longtime geographical location along the Mediterranean Sea – and that it had somehow lost an "h" in the transition - Mr. McCain of Arizona briskly cut off the gathered news media."These are the types of feckless questions that invite our enemies to do us and others harm," he warned sternly. "This is why nobody believes in America’s strength anymore. Rather than worry about whether Benghazi borders the Mediterranean or the Black Sea, we should be concerned about why we have a president who seems incapable of doing anything about it."Rep. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who had joined Mr. Graham’s and Mr. McCain’s presentation on Capitol Building steps, said he has long worried that Russia is "running circles around us" and now, after viewing the senators’ new redistricting map, he said he fears the Eastern Europe super power is running circles around Benghazi as well."It always seems to come back to Benghazi, doesn’t it?" Mr. Rogers said as he waved about a book of works by Taras Shevchenko, a poet who is a symbol of Ukrainian nationhood..Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, also chimed in. Taking the Senate floor, Mr. McConnell declared that by downplaying the importance of what happened in Benghazi in 2012, and by paying no heed to its geographical significance in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, "the president has eroded American credibility abroad and our trust at home.""The world is changing fast," Mr. McConnell said, squinting at his own copy of the McCain-Graham map. "And the White House seems incapable of keeping up with the realignment that is going on overseas. It’s an embarrassment, quite frankly, and a danger."The White House was quick to fire back. "GOP criticism of Pres Obama jumped the shark today when they started saying Benghazi is closer to Simferopol than Kiev," Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser, wrote on Twitter.Mr. Pfeiffer added that the president might be agreeable to a redistricting map showing Benghazi nearer Azerbaijan or another locale close to the Caspian Sea, but Simferopol and the Black Sea is "a map too far."But the emerging critique that Benghazi is closer to Ukraine than the president has let on has clearly gotten under Mr. Obama’s skin. Without waiting to be asked, he produced his own map of the region for reporters, showing Benghazi back in its customary spot along the Mediterranean with a superimposed area of detail illustrating that the city is also free from any Internal Revenue Service investigations."I would also note just the way that some of this has been reported, that there’s a suggestion somehow that these actions have been clever strategically, or are somehow factual," Mr. Obama said. "I actually think that this has not been a sign of strength but rather is a reflection that countries near Russia – and I don’t count Libya as one – ought to have deep concerns and suspicions about this kind of meddling."But Mr. Graham, who faces a Republican primary challenge from the right in South Carolina, was not ready to give ground on his redistricting map – even seeming to expand the geographical reach of the redrawn territories with a claim he made on a Twitter post."Putin," he wrote, "basically came to the conclusion after Benghazi, Syria, Egypt — which are all within miles of Crimea — that we all have. And that is that Obama is a weak, indecisive leader abroad who has used the tyrannical power of his office to take over the U.S."Philip Maddocks writes a weekly satirical column. He can be reached at pmaddocks@wickedlocal.com.